Major bug in Celestia 1.4 (OS X Tiger)

Cham · Post #1by **Cham** » 21.08.2005, 19:10

Since about 5 days, I'm trying to run the latest Celestia 1.4 from Dirkpitt on a new Mac : Dual 2.0 GHz G5, with Tiger 10.4.2 and ATI X850XT video card. 2.5 GB of ram. But then, I very frequently experience some nasty bug which force me to restart the computer !

I launch Celestia, get to the Earth, and very often (it isn't totally systematic), some huge video noise and (OpenGL ?) triangles appears in the Celestia window. Celestia becomes totally unusable then. Few moments later, the video noise expand to everything else : Desktop, Dock, menus, and the computer becomes unusable. Apparently, there is some interaction between that noise and "Expos?©" and the "Widgets". I'm forced to quit the session and restart a new one.

I even turned off the Quartz acceleration using the console, just to see if it may solve the problem, but nope, it's still there.

I never had a problem like this on my G4 with Panther, ATI 9800Pro.

Any idea on this ?

symaski62 · Post #2by **symaski62** » 21.08.2005, 20:59

#------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The following line is commented out by default.
#
# Celestia enables and disables certain rendering features based on
# the set of extensions supported by the installed OpenGL driver and 3D
# graphics hardware. With IgnoreGLExtensions, you may specify a list of
# extensions that Celestia will treat as unsupported. This is useful
# primarily for the developers of Celestia.
#------------------------------------------------------------------------#IgnoreGLExtensions [ "GL_ARB_vertex_program" ]

"#" charge

IgnoreGLExtensions [ "GL_ARB_vertex_program" ]

C:\Program Files\Celestia\celestia.CFG

:wink:

tranks

Cham · Post #3by **Cham** » 21.08.2005, 21:25

symaski62,

even if this solves the problem, it's a major DOWNGRADE to me. Celestia used to work perfectly on the older computer with a less powerfull ATI GPU.

Apparently, this is a bug in the X850XT drivers.

Cham · Post #4by **Cham** » 22.08.2005, 19:42

Here's a picture from some guy which is having a similar problem on his Mac with the same video card (ATI X850XT). This is very similar to what I'm experiencing with Celestia :

http://sleepy.gcsu.edu/cinema_screen/image001.jpg

Notice the video noise. It's expanding to the menu bar. Soon after that, it will expand to everything, Dock, menus, etc.

Any idea on this ?

Dirkpitt ?

EDIT : Here are some screen captures I made myself of the bug in action. All pictures have been reduced by about 70%. The first picture is Celestia normally behaving, just moments before the bug happened (click on the images for a bigger one) :

The second picture is what I got after resizing Celestia's window to a smaller size :

The third picture shows Celestia after I expanded Celestia's window :

The last two pictures are what I get AFTER CELESTIA HAVE BEEN CLOSED. ALL THE INTERFACE IS NOW GARBBLED AND I NEED TO RESTART THE COMPUTER :

BlindedByTheLight · Post #5by **BlindedByTheLight** » 23.08.2005, 00:18

Well, first of all - dang! you have a big screen, Cham...

Secondly, have you tried some of the other 1.4 versions? The pre06 or any of the ones I have on my site (stevenbinder.net)?

Perhaps if one worked but not the other that could help narrow down the source of the bug...

Cham · Post #6by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 00:37

BlindedByTheLight,

really, I don't even have to try. I'm totally certain the problem will be there.

BlindedByTheLight · Post #7by **BlindedByTheLight** » 23.08.2005, 00:46

Cham wrote:BlindedByTheLight,

really, I don't even have to try. I'm totally certain the problem will be there.

I would tend to agree with you - a differential in the problem is a long-shot. But you may get lucky - especially since there ARE some patches in my builds that don't exist in Dirkpitt's build (and vice versa with the pre6 build) that, I believe, are OpenGL bug-fixing related. They didn't affect my card specifically (so I didn't pay too much attention), but I recall some of doctorjoe's patches having to do with some problems certain graphics cards were having with OpenGL.

Cham · Post #8by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 01:07

OOOPS !

BlindedByTheLight,

I'm trying your version called "Celestia (UNOFFICIAL Binder Build 7-12-2005)" right now, and guess what ? I'M UNABLE TO REPRODUCE THE BUG !

I need more time to be sure, but apparently the bug may be in the new galactic rendering, or in Dirkpitt's built !

Dirkpitt, where are you !?

BlindedByTheLight · Post #9by **BlindedByTheLight** » 23.08.2005, 01:20

Cham wrote:OOOPS !

BlindedByTheLight,

I'm trying your version called "Celestia (UNOFFICIAL Binder Build 7-12-2005)" right now, and guess what ? I'M UNABLE TO REPRODUCE THE BUG !

I need more time to be sure, but apparently the bug may be in the new galactic rendering, or in Dirkpitt's built !

Dirkpitt, where are you !?

It could definitely be the galactic rendering - since that is in Dirkpitt's build but not mine. Yet it could still be doctorjoe's OpenGL patches... which are in mine but not Dirkpitt's. The way to definintively rule that it would be to try the standard pre6 build.

If it works, that would suggest the problem is the galatic rendering.
If it doesn't, that would suggest the problem has something to do with doctorjoe's patches.

Cham · Post #10by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 01:23

Well, not too fast. There's something weird here.

I just reinstalled Dirkpitt's version, and this one appears to work too, until now. I'm unable to reproduce the bug (wich isn't totally systematic anyway).

I need to reproduce the bug even in Dirkpitt's fresh version, at least one more time.

BlindedByTheLight · Post #11by **BlindedByTheLight** » 23.08.2005, 01:41

That IS weird... but I had something weird happen with Dirkpitt's version, too - I couldn't get the galaxies to show. And I threw it away... then tried again and it worked. Maybe I screwed up where I was supposed to put the extra files... or maybe it had nothing to do with his version at all...

Cham · Post #12by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 01:41

Well, well, well,

I was able to reproduce the same bug on both versions. The one from BlindedByTheLight, AND the one from Dirkpitt.

Sorry, the bug is there in both :-(

EDIT : Actually, my theory is that the bug isn't in Celestia at all. It's in the damn%$#@&*! drivers !! >8-(

Cham · Post #13by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 01:51

I just found a way to reproduce easily and systematically the bug. Now, it's fully repeatable. Here's what I do :

1- Launch Celestia (Dirkpitt or your version).
2- Use "Expos?©" to reveal the Desktop. Celestia's window will then move to hide itself.
3- I double-click on some Safari icon located on the Desktop to go to a web page (any will do). This force all hidden windows to be revealed. Safari opens its window and Celestia unhide its window in the background. This trigger the bug instantaneously.

BlindedByTheLight · Post #14by **BlindedByTheLight** » 23.08.2005, 04:41

Cham wrote:I just found a way to reproduce easily and systematically the bug. Now, it's fully repeatable. Here's what I do :

1- Launch Celestia (Dirkpitt or your version).
2- Use "Expos?©" to reveal the Desktop. Celestia's window will then move to hide itself.
3- I double-click on some Safari icon located on the Desktop to go to a web page (any will do). This force all hidden windows to be revealed. Safari opens its window and Celestia unhide its window in the background. This trigger the bug instantaneously.

Well, the cause of that is beyond me but, to narrow down the specific cause, since they say three time's a charm, I'll try one more time...

Have you tried the original 1.4pre6 version?

Post #15by **dirkpitt** » 23.08.2005, 07:27

I'm unable to reproduce the problem (I also don't have an X850).

The ATI updater that was released earlier this month does not say if it's for the X850 but it's probably worth trying out (it won't change anything if
your card is not supported). Just make sure you boot in Safe Mode (hold
down shift key during boot) before running the updater.

Cham · Post #16by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 10:33

dirkpitt wrote:I'm unable to reproduce the problem (I also don't have an X850).

The ATI updater that was released earlier this month does not say if it's for the X850 but it's probably worth trying out (it won't change anything if
your card is not supported). Just make sure you boot in Safe Mode (hold
down shift key during boot) before running the updater.

I tried the release, and the software doesn't recognise the card at all (it says "unknown video card" !). In their supported cards list, the X850 XT isn't listed.

I even clean reinstalled the OS, but it doesn't help. The problem is clearly related to the video card drivers. Some other guys are having similar problem with their X850 XT on the Apple forum.

Post #17by **dirkpitt** » 23.08.2005, 11:20

I'm curious, can you post a link to the Apple discussion forum where the bug is mentioned?

Cham · Post #18by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 18:15

Dirkpitt,

here's a first link :

http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx? ... 68b72611/3

Here's a second one, which at first may look unrelated, but I think it is :
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx? ... 959e5e/801

Cham · Post #19by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 20:01

HURRA ! (?)

ATI has just updated its ATI Display software today ! Now, it's version 4.5.5 and apparently it solved all my Celestia problems !

I need more time to test it further, because the bug wasn't totally systematic, and the trick I've found yesterday to reproduce it easily may not work anymore. But now I'm optimistic.

However, it didn't solved all the video problems I was experiencing with some other programs. Maybe that's because I need a driver update, and I don't think the ATI Display are the drivers themselves. It's just a control panel.

Cham · Post #20by **Cham** » 23.08.2005, 20:27

AAAaaargh !

I was wrong ! Celestia has exactly the same problem has before ! The bug appears to be a bit harder to reproduce, but it's still there !

The ATI Display update just added the possibility to have antialiasing, which I was waiting anyway.

:evil: